Ban Ki-Moon will meet leaders separately

UNITED Nations Secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon will hold separate meetings with the leaders of Cyprus’ ethnically divided communities in a symbolic move to show support to negotiations, reports said yesterday.

State television CyBC reported that Ban will see President Demetris Christofias on July 13 in Paris, on the sidelines of the Euro-Mediterranean Summit.

Greek Prime Minister Constantinos Karamanlis and his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan will also attend the summit but it is unknown if they will discuss the Cyprus problem.

Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat will meet Ban on July 15 in Berlin, the reports said.

The meetings take place ahead of the two leaders’ July 25 meeting where it is expected they will decide whether to go ahead with direct talks.

Working groups and technical committees from both communities have been engaged in discussions on day to day and substantive issues with mixed results.

A UN official quoted on the website of daily newspaper Phileleftheros did not confirm the planned meetings.

However, he added that should they go ahead they will aim in the Secretary-general hearing the two sides’ views personally and endorsing and encouraging the talks to go forward.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.